GIBBS, GEORGE

George Gibbs began manufacturing guns in Bristol circa 1830. He built a new factory in 1873, and became famous for big game rifles popular during the Victorian and Edwardian eras. The .505 Gibbs cartridge became widely known. In 1874, the maker patented the Gibbs & Pitt gun - sometimes dubbed the first commercially successful hammerless shotgun - a triggerplate design that cocked via its underlever (later a toplever-cocking variant was also produced). In 1906, Gibbs moved to 35 Savile Row. The firm's founder, George C. Gibbs, died in 1918, and company ownership passed out of family hands and into a partnership. By 1929, the firm went bankrupt, but survived for a time in smaller quarters off Baldwin Street in Bristol. During 1964, Gibbs was purchased by Bath gunmaker I.M. Crudgington and Norman Harper. In 2007, Crudgington's son, stockmaker Mark Crudgington, purchased the name and continues to make guns under the Gibbs name.
Information courtesy of David Grant and Vic Venters.